Technical Field
The invention relates to a printing head module, and more particularly, to a printing head module adapted for a three-dimensional (3-D) printing apparatus.
Description of Related Art
With the advance in computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), rapid prototyping (RP) has been developed by manufacturing industries, which can rapidly fabricate original concept designs. The RP technology may provide geometric shapes with limitations, and excellence of the RP technology is better demonstrated in more complex components. Further, manpower and processing time can be greatly reduced, and designed components on 3-D computer-aided design (CAD) can be realistically rendered in a short amount of time. Not only can the components be touched, but the geometric curves thereof can also be truly appreciated. Moreover, the assembly ability of the components can be tested, and even functional tests may be performed thereto.
A number of RP methods are available, such as fused deposition modeling (FDM) and laminated object manufacturing (LOM) and so on.
However, in most 3-D printing apparatuses that currently use the RP methods for forming 3-D objects, only one printing head is provided. As a result, when it is necessary to switch to a different construction material, the printing head needs to be ejected first so as to eject the current material, followed by connecting a desired construction material to the printing head, and then returning the printing head that completes the replacement of the material to its original position in order to resume printing. This is very inconvenient in use. Therefore, the industry has begun to develop printing head modules equipped with multiple printing heads. However, this kind of printing head module with multiple printing heads require multiple corresponding driving motors for separately driving a feeding gear set of each of the printing heads, which not only considerably increases the component complexity of the 3-D printing apparatus but also the production cost thereof.